Go to salt fly

[AB1]

Good day.


Ok, like most if the inland folk the holiday fever is starting to get the better of me, I am starting to envisage the foamy water and a huge basket strapped to my waist and then what??

Surely there must be go to fly’s like the GRHE, Wooly Bugger, PTN are for fresh water.

I was thinking along these lines.

Crazy Charlie in chartreuse and green, on #4 hooks maybe up to 1/0
A prawn of shrimp pattern
A couple of clauzer’s (sp) white/green and white/grey
Flipper (any suggestion on colour would be great)
Small popper (colour ?)

Maybe we should start a thread with a poll on the salt fly that has taken the most fish?

Thank you.

[FastAction]

My list would be:

1. Salty Bugger (in various colours and sizes, the "go-to" flies)
2. Clousers
3. Deceivers
4. Crazy Charlies

The rest are backups...but the above ones are the first to try, in my opinion.

[Dieter]

for the clousers try blue/white, pink/white as well..
for the flipper white, green maybe yellow?

a couple of surf candies maybe?
Charlies varied colours lean towards the naturals.. olive,tan,pink?

Oh yes and salty buggers..

Hope this helps a bit

Cheers
Dieter

[Adrian]

Hi Abraham

i would say in order

Crazy Charlies Sizes 6,4,2,1 Chartreuse, white, orange,Pink
Clousers Sizes 4,2,1,1/0,2/0 Chartreuse/white,Pink/white, white
Salty Buggers Sizes 6,4,2,1 Chartreuse,white,orange
Flippers Sizes 2,1,1/0,2/0 White

Gully flies eg small baitfish patterns work very well

Where and when will you be fishing ?

Cheers

Adrian

[deewy]

What do you want to catch?? That is the million dollar question. You cant just hit the surf and hope something will eat your fly...Where will you be fishing and what weight rod will you take, you just cant cast a 2/0 or 3/0 clouser with a 6wt.

But for the basics...Leeries, Skipjack, Shad and maybe cob.

No1: Clousers - #2 to 1/0 in Chartreuse over white and olive over white. Pink and yellow are also good, but Chartreuse my 1st choice.

No2: Saltybugger - #6 - 1/0 with beadchain eyes. White and white with chartreuse tail. or plain Chartreuse.

No3: Flipper - #2 - 2/0 on longshank hooks and in white only

I have never caught anything on a Deciever but its a good fly to have. And have some Charlies for the gully fish.

Hope we could help but the abouve questions are import to get the best possible answer.

Dewald

[Fisher]

I have never caught anything on a Deciever but its a good fly to have.....




Ditto



If you are fishing Zululand for 3* pompano, sand coulored Charlys #1 with some pronounced orange (slow on a full sinking line). Fishing the surf coulors are not THAT importent, but what I can tell you (what I found) do not use "One Coulor" flies especialy if you imatate baitfish in bright clear conditions.

For genaral fishing I have mostly Clousers and Charlies, and then some other patterns just as spice

[AB1]

Thanx Guy's.

Dewald, what I want to catch well anything will do.... I will be fishing Haroldsbaai and surrounds. I have a 9 wt rod as well as a 5 wt. Was thinking of scraching in the gullies with my 5 wt for blacktail and other small fish and trying the surf for cob, shad and leeries. If I find an esturie I was thinking of trying for grunter on the prawn beds.

I have never fished the coast and have also not been in Haroldsbaai, so I have no idea what to expect with regards to fishing spots.

[deewy]

I have sent you a pm.

But just for the rest who might read this tread...

Haroldsbay is VERY flyfishing unfriendly and you will mostlikely lose or badly damage a flyline. During the day the beach is way to busy to even try and fly fish. The clifs on either side has very good deepwater next to it, but is very very dangerous. Stick to the estuaries, your chances of catching fish is so much better.

Grunter...your chances are very limited over the holidays as most of the grunter spots will be full of holiday makers either swiming or skiing.

Cob in the surf...can be done, but serious hard work and the chance of going home empty handed is a given. If you dont know the surf and what to look for you will just wast your time and have a stiff arm the next day, not good for drinking beer on the beach oggeling the babes:D

Next thing, dont even try any of the surf spots without atleast an intermediate.

Well good luck and hope to see some pics.

Dewald

[AB1]

After my brief trip to the local tackle shops in Bloem (brief due to the lack of stock) I have the following options to tie my clousers and charlies with.

I have all the white material I need, these options are for the chartreuse or green I will need.

Marabou
Dyed bucktail
Polar fiber
Flashbou

Witch one will be best. I understand I may have to get two of the above. Any tips or advice will be helpfull.

[rols]

If I understand you correctly.....you can choose 2 of the materials? I would go with the bucktail and flashabou. I find Marabou wraps a bit and you gotta have a bit of flash.

[poppernel]

HI AB1,

Another good fly is a all white whistler, or white/pink whistler.

Dave

[deewy]

I use polarfibre for my saltybuggers when fishing for shad, they destroy bucktail and marrabou. But you will find any saltybugger with a marabou or zonker(even better) will outfish the the polarfibre ones. Good materials to get is SF Blend and Deadly dazzle, works a treat for clousers and other baitfish paterns. Bucktail clousers will work but i just like the synthetic better.

Hope i could help

[FishWhisperer]

1) Ruffies - Orange, chart, white
2) Clousers - Chart/White, Olive/White and Pink/White
3) Mylar Baitfish
4) Charlies - Flash and Grunter.
All on hooks smaller than size 1.
90% of the time for rock, surf and estuary work you wont need anything else.
Have fun! :D

[Bruce]

1 Clouser - brown / white or chartreuse / white
2 Siliclone
3 Cockroach
4 Balsa popper
5 Flipper
6 Semper

Obviously depending on where I am fishing, but this lot makes up most of my surf and extuary boxes...

[Korrie]

My material of choice is Frizz Fibre white.
With a couple of diffirent colored permanent markers.
Tie a Frizz Fibre baitfish.
This fly is now my first go to fly, colored to match the popular color of the region.
It has produced without fail.

[Chris Shelton]

You been catching anything interesting in the salt lately Korrie?

[Jasper]

I like Booger's go-to fly ... for EVERYTHING ... an Olive Wooly Bugger .... and he catches LOTS of fish!!! :D ,,, from Leeries to little stream trout!!!

[Chris Shelton]

I like Booger's go-to fly ... for EVERYTHING ... an Olive Wooly Bugger .... and he catches LOTS of fish!!! :D ,,, from Leeries to little stream trout!!!

hehe, I agree with you. The man's a legend in the making :)

[will101]

I use polarfibre for my saltybuggers when fishing for shad, they destroy bucktail and marrabou. But you will find any saltybugger with a marabou or zonker(even better) will outfish the the polarfibre ones. Good materials to get is SF Blend and Deadly dazzle, works a treat for clousers and other baitfish paterns. Bucktail clousers will work but i just like the synthetic better.

Hope i could help

Dewalt I read your story on leervis on one of the mags lying around at home. I must say I'm impressed with the advances you have made in such a short time ff'ing. Well done man. Also seems you have done your homework - everything makes a whole lot of sense if you think about it.

I had some good success on a tan over white clouser I made myself. It works well in estuaries - I think you also mentioned that in your column.

Was interesting to see that fish appear tan-coloured or brown when you spot them chasing the fly (over a sandbank this is). This combination works for leerie, elf, grunter, steenbras and cob - even mullet.

cheers
Willie

[deewy]

Dewalt I read your story on leervis on one of the mags lying around at home. I must say I'm impressed with the advances you have made in such a short time ff'ing. Well done man. Also seems you have done your homework - everything makes a whole lot of sense if you think about it.

I had some good success on a tan over white clouser I made myself. It works well in estuaries - I think you also mentioned that in your column.

Was interesting to see that fish appear tan-coloured or brown when you spot them chasing the fly (over a sandbank this is). This combination works for leerie, elf, grunter, steenbras and cob - even mullet.

cheers
Willie

Thanks Willie, much appreciated, please keep a look out for the next article in a month or so;)

Tan clousers are VERY good fih taking paterns, just look at this for matching a "hatch"

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk319/deewy2652/Fly%20tying/PC190003.jpg

Tan clouser on 1/0 hook , next to a leerie mac meal.

The last trip was completely different, the fish ate the bucktail clousers before they took the synthetic flies, we took averything from leeries, shad , kob and even a baby grunter on the same flies.

You will also see that if the leeries stay in the freshwater for quite some time, they go very dark, almost olive and I have even seen ones with yellow fins, the only reason I think is the salinity of the water.

By the way, where did you get your leeries? And what size where they?

[will101]

The ones I got on fly were very small, the biggest about 30cm. Mostly I think because of the heavy wind causing me not to get any decent distance (my casting is up to sh!t). I was fishing the mouth of the big river at that windy place. I got my best fish on a plug, though it took only meters from the side - could just as well have cast a fly at it, so there goes the theory about the wind. Gotta have some kind of excuse!

[Gogga]

Clouser - every time, Pink and white (polar bear) Black over Orange and chartreuse over white. I have caught fish all over the world using those three colors - most successful by far.

However, having said that - I have fished a few places just recently where my new fly (Long Tailed one I posted recently) has cleaned up. Maybe because they are all over 90mm / 120mm and the bait fish where matched perfectly.

[WazzyP]

From all the replies you clearly know what flies to go for now. Of all the flies mentioned above I always try these 2 first...

* Crazy Charlie
* Clousers Minnow

I use the Charlie to target small gully species and the clousers for gamefish.

The reason I used these 2 is that they ride hook up, which helps in rocks by not hooking up as often. It also helps over the prawn beds by not dragging the hook in the sand if fishing a slow retrieve on the bottom.

Otherwise salty buggers have been VERY successful for me.

Good luck!!